CLEVELAND — The Cleveland Browns struggled to convert red-zone opportunities into touchdowns throughout the first half of the 2019 regular season, and those issues persisted in Sunday’s game against the Buffalo Bills at FirstEnergy Stadium in Cleveland.
The Browns scored only two touchdowns on their four trips inside Buffalo’s 20-yard line, but those tallies helped Cleveland post a 19-16 win over the Bills, the team’s first victory in over a month and first at home this season.
“Just have to come away with the touchdowns,” wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. said.
“It’s really all you can do is come away with touchdowns. We didn’t. We got a couple of pass interferences down there, and then, they stuffed the run. Just clean it up. All we can do right now is be happy with the win and in a blink of an eye, we’ll be playing again.”
Nowhere were those red-zone issues more obvious than late in the first quarter.
The Browns had eight snaps inside the Bills’ two-yard line on their second drive of the game, but despite twice having the possession extended by pass interference penalties in the end zone drawn on passes to Beckham Jr., the offense could not push the ball across the goal line.
The Browns were stopped for no gain or lost yardage on five carries from running back Nick Chubb, had one incompletion, a ball that was batted out of the hands of Beckham Jr. in the end zone, and turned over the ball on downs.
Browns radio announcer and WKYC sports anchor Jim Donovan offered some clarity in the goal line struggles on Monday’s edition of “Under Further Review” with Dave “Dino” DeNatale.
“There are a lot of elements that are missing here," Donovan said. “That’s the problem. You can add it all up, and that’s why you get stuffed on these runs from one-yard out when you can coast down the field.
“They do not have a fullback, and that’s a big miss when constructing the roster. The Browns are trying to be exactly what they’re not, and it’s a macho feeling. You want to think you can win the one-on-one battles, and you might not be constructed to do that. You’ve got to spread it out.”
Despite the inability to capitalize on the good field position, the Browns maintained a 6-0 lead over the Bills with 3:13 to play in the first quarter, and they scored their second red-zone touchdown of the game late in the fourth period.
“I was just angry we didn’t score,” left guard Joel Bitonio said. “You get eight chances from about the one-yard line to punch that in for a touchdown. It was just the emotions of playing the game. That was tough. Cooler heads prevailed, but I was just angry at the offense for not getting us some points there.”
Wide receiver Jarvis Landry added, “We just have to execute. Obviously, we try to do what we feel is best that week that gives us the best opportunity to score. This week, it was more trying to run the ball in there, trying to figure out a way to get Kareem (Hunt) in the end zone, get Chubb in the end zone.”
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Although there were struggles inside the 20-yard line, Kitchens was pleased to see his team respond to the adversity and hopes to continue that mindset, starting with Thursday’s game against the Pittsburgh Steelers at FirstEnergy Stadium in Cleveland.
“I think that is the biggest thing to come out of this was we were not very good down there to begin with in the game,” Kitchens said. “We had nine chances inside the two and did not get it in. Those guys, they never waived. They never blinked. They continued to fight. There was never a doubt in anybody’s feelings that we could not drive down the field and go score a touchdown.
“That is what those guys did. I was very impressed with their resiliency to continue just to play the next play. It did not matter. Bad things happen. Bad things are going to happen next week. We just have to keep playing the next play, just one play at a time and just continuing to get better and better and better during the course of the game, and that is what happened.”